Spooky season bites: Gourmet ghost tour blends haunted history and cuisine in San Francisco

Whether you're a foodie or a fan of the supernatural, there's unique experience in San Francisco taking bite-sized history to a whole new level. The North Beach Gourmet Ghost Tour leads guests through Little Italy and Chinatown where history and hauntings intertwine. Let's welcome Carrie Ricciardi, Lefrano, and Marcy Clark from Stretchy Pants Food Tours. Ladies, welcome. You've been on the show before. Welcome back. This looks delicious. Thanks for having us. How does the ghost part come into it? You know, Stretchy Pants loves spooky season. We also do food tours all year round, but the Gourmet Ghost Tour is sort of this love project of us and all the guides really got involved. But we mix and match. We do haunted restaurants and our favorite food just to make sure the food stays as top level as possible. But it's super fun. It's kind of like sinister stories, ghost stories, and obviously a lot of Italian food along the way. So kind of to spark your appetite, right, Marcy, before you eat? Yes. If you, you know, fear heightens your taste buds, maybe. Right. People love, like, Fior d'Italia, we go, and this is some of their beautiful, their amazing gnocchi, bruschetta, pancetta-wrapped prawns, and, you know, while we're there, we tell ghost stories, like, about the painted lady in room 33 and her extreme makeup and how she shows up across the bed. Right. you know in the in a painting or hovering over the bed right good san francisco this is kind of a sneaky way of sneaking history in right yeah because the ghost stories have you know maybe maybe you don't believe in ghosts but maybe you do know that this particular person lived here or that particular person lived there and there's history involved and then you eat totally and also all of the stories are rooted in history in some way so even if you don't believe in ghosts it's about a ghost sighting that was cited in the SF Chronicle or it's about um a shanghaier who as you know his history and his story there's a couple of shanghaiers in San Francisco so whether you believe or not in spirits it's you can believe that the historical context is correct where did this one come from Cavalli Cafe got it okay so you guys not only do you have the stories lined up but you guys since you guys are tour guides you kind of know the spots is there any is there any you know after been doing this for a while you keep going back to the same spots you try new spots you know we have spots that we like to work with we have multiple vendors and people always ask me though can't get a restaurant list i'm like you get a restaurant list after the tour because we if you're gluten-free we have a spot that we like better for gluten-free and if you're these is gluten-free right yeah that one is yes this is an almondine cake. There's an apricot and a strawberry flavor in there. It's gluten-free. It's from Cavalli Café. As well as their tiramisu is extraordinary. You mentioned Fior d'Italia? Yes, this is from Fior d'Italia. The pizza is from Steps of Rome, a margherita. I don't think I've ever had Steps of Rome pizza. Oh, it's really good. The same owner's as Mona Lisa. Yes, and this is their Steps of Rome signature with guanciale and onions, caramelized onions. How is the tour business these days, ladies? It's pretty good. We get a lot of team buildings and corporate events, and then we get tourists. So it's kind of this nice combination. And we also really get a lot of locals. Like, a ghost tour is perfect for locals. Yeah, you're always welcome to come. I promise to shut up and not spoil anything. Actually, you know, I love history. I know our coworkers are going to come and taste some of the food. Okay, which one should I try? The gnocchi's good. This sandwich from Mario's Bohemian. Oh, Mario's Bohemian. This is extraordinary. Now, before we go, I have to press you, either of you, to tell me a ghost story. Yes. Tell me, please. Okay. So, there's a lot of cities like to say that they are the most haunted. But a lot of people would say that San Francisco ranks up there very high. And this is because of how many dispossessed, angry, and unsettled souls there are, especially in North Beach. and a lot of this is because a lot of people were shanghaied, kidnapped, conned and murdered there one of the people that was shanghaied, this is somebody who kidnapped sailors and just any able-bodied man and forced them on a ship to shanghai to serve as a sailor for a year or two of their life was a woman, Miss Piggott. They said she had fists the size of baby hams. She was a ferocious woman. She was her own bartender and she would give them a shot of whiskey, gin, brandy and opium or laudanum. She'd give them the shot down the hatch and pull a lever. They'd fall into it down a trap door, be carried awake in the morning with a swift kick to the ribs and worst hangover of their life on a ship to Shanghai. Sold. Yeah. And this is if they didn't die. So tell me the name of where people can participate. You can look us up at stretchy-pants.com or you can just Google us at stretchypants.sf. And we also have a pop-up Chinatown cocktail ghost tour happening in October, which is super fun. That's sort of a one-time event. But yeah, you can just look us up. Mario's Cigar Store Cafe is one of my favorites. It's amazing. I love ghost tours because they're really history. Absolutely. Or the tiramisu. Mario's Bohemian, my father-in-law is the godfather of the sons. Cara and Marcy, thank you for joining us. Thank you. I said, Cara and Marcy, thank you for joining us. Oh, okay, you're kidding. All right.